Beschreibung
This book investigates the development of Afro-German literature in the context of the
African American experience and shows the decisive role of literature for the emergence of
the Afro-German Movement.
Various Afro-German literary and cultural initiatives, which began in the 1980s, arose as a
response to the experience of being marginalized – to the point of invisibility – within a
dominant Eurocentric culture that could not bring the notions of “Black” and “German”
together in a meaningful way. The book is a significant contribution to the understanding of
German literature as multi-ethnic and of the the transatlantic networks operating in the
African Diasporas.
Aija Poikane-Daumke graduated from the
University of Latvia where she received her BA
and MA degrees in education and English philology. She discovered her interest in Black
literature and culture in the course of her high school year Cleveland, Ohio. In 2002, she was
awarded a scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and pursued her
doctoral thesis in American Studies at Universität Dortmund. In Dortmund, she taught several
seminars on Afro-German and African American literature. Currently, she is engaged in a
project on East European immigrant narratives in the US after WW
II.
